Improvement in street-signs



PpA. La FRANCE.

STREET-SIGN.

No. 193,006. v Pate nted Ju1.y 10,1877.

- light shining UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

PETER A. LA FRANOE, OF ELMIRA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF HIS RIGHTTO ALEXANDER H.

BALDWIN, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN STREET-SIGNS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 193,006, dated July 10,1877; application filed January 23, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PETER A. LA FRANcE, of Elmira, in the county ofGhemung and State of New York, have invented a new and usefulImprovement in Street-Signs, of which the following is a specification:

This invention relates to that class of invention or signs which aresuspended on the streetlampsfand "are read at night by the through thesign, the letters beingopaque, and in which the letters show by dayagainst the transparent ground. In Letters Patent N 0. 174,079, issuedto said LA FRANCE on the 29th day of February, A. 'D. 1876, the mode ofattachin g such signs to the frames of street-lamps is shown. The signsthere proposed were made of glass, and the words and figures werepainted on the glass. In the introduction of that invention I haveencountered the objection that the glass signs were liable to be broken,and to obviate that I now propose to make them entirely of metal and tothis end my invention consists in making a frame of U-formed strips,kept parallel by means of strips fastened to the backs of thelongitudinal strips so as to leave the groove open, and free to receiveletters orfigures,

made of cast metal, having projecting stems at top and bottom to bereceived in the grooves where they are secured when the propercombination has been formed by pinching the sides of the grooves on eachside of the stems, thus exhibiting the full length of theperfectly-formed letters or figures.

In the annexed drawings, making part of this specification, Figure I isa perspective view of a section of the sign, showing the letters asplaced in the grooves, and Fig. II is a name to this specification inthe similar view, showing the sign as completed by pinching the sides ofthe grooves between the stems.

Two strips, AA, are cut to the proper form, and bent into a U form, theopen parts of the grooves are opposed to one another, and the strips arethen connected by bars 0, soldered to the backs of both strips so as toleave the grooves open to receive figures or letters B, which are castin various sizes, if necessary, but madeof equal lengths by stems B atthe top and bottom. When these letters are to be inserted the stems areslid into the opposed grooves, and properly spaced to form the requiredcombination, the letters proper being midway between the parallel stripsA A, the

stems being received in the grooves. The

sides of the grooves are then set down against one another, as shown inFig. II, confining the stems and completing the sign, which may then besuspended from the lamp in any known manner.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Signs for street-lamps, combining in their construction frames withparallel U--formed sides of flexible sheet metal and "stemmed letters orfigures, insertedand held in place by pinching the frames on each sideof the stem s, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my presence of two subscribingwitnesses.

P. A. LA FRANCE.

Witnesses:

0. A. REED, EDWARD GODDARD.

